...divisive theological debate over homosexual behavior developed when gay activists created their own revisionist interpretation of the Bible to support their claim that homosexual behavior is neither immoral nor sinful. This revisionist theology has been labeled “gay theology.” Many Christians are not aware that in 1968 a gay activist started a Christian denomination called the Metropolitan Community Church based on gay theology. In this introduction I will point out some obvious errors in gay revisionist arguments and outline a much wider scope of biblical principles that are related to how the church deals with homosexuals and the gay political movement. Scripture and gay revisionism Gay activists contend there are only seven scriptures that address homosexuality in the Bible and therefore homosexual behavior is insignificant in scripture. Gay activists also contend that theologians have misinterpreted the seven scriptures. The seven main scriptures are the Genesis account of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19), the Mosaic Law in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, the letter by Jude verse 7, and the Apostle Paul’s letters in Romans 1:26-7, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, and 1 Timothy 1:9-10. Gay activists like to point out that none of these scripture references are in the first four books of the New Testament that record the direct teachings of Jesus. The gay argument is that since Jesus never mentioned homosexual behavior, it should not be considered immoral. That argument lacks any merit...
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...marriage as of 2015. There are two competing worldviews regarding this prevalent topic: those that support homosexuality and those who do not. People that support homosexuality are generally in favor of gay rights and marriage equality. The value judgment of those that are pro-homosexuality is that homosexuality is right. They do not feel that homosexuality causes any harm. Their moral stance, which causes them to make this judgment, is that gay relationships and marriage can be beneficial and nothing should stand in the way of the happiness, relationship, or marriage between two people who love one another, regardless of sex. People that are against homosexuality are generally against gay rights and marriage equality. The value judgment of anti-homosexuals is that homosexuality is wrong. They feel that homosexuality is harmful in some aspect. Their moral stance is that marriage and relationships are supposed to be/designed to be strictly between a man and a woman. Those with a biblical worldview have an anti-homosexual viewpoint, which means that we should be against marriage equality and homosexual relationships. Christians base their viewpoint regarding this issue off of the ultimate source of truth: The Bible. According to the Bible, God created one man and one woman in the Garden of Eden, and He designed marriage to be between these two sexes alone. Therefore, people with a biblical worldview are against homosexuality because gay relations go against the framework of love...
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...DPP (1962) case, the appellant after the solicitation of prostitution was made illegal published a magazine containing personal advertisements of prostitutes which provided their contact details, pictures as well as they services they were ready to perform. A charge was brought against him on the basis of “conspiring to corrupt the public morals.” Though it is unclear whether Shaw possessed the Mens Rea (the Guilty Mind) one of the elements required for the constitution of a criminal act, the Actus Reus (the Act) element...
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...the systematic study if the human conduct in the areas of the life sciences and health care. Based on the foregoing arguments, these are the following issues, namely surrogate motherhood, drug addiction, suicide, murder, self-defense, euthanasia, capital punishment, abortion, and mutilation. Surrogate motherhood is the transaction through which a woman bears the child for the convenience of another woman. It is one of the progressive ways of alleviating infertility. However, Catholic Church is strong in saying that reproduction outside marriage is illicit, and therefore, immoral. Drug addiction is not immoral if the drug intake is meant for curing an illness. However, the immorality of drugs would surface if used outside their purpose. Suicide is to kill oneself. It is an immoral total cessation of a God-given life. Therefore, suicide is immoral. Murder is the art of killing of an innocent person. It is immoral since it violates the right of God over human life. Self-defense is not our duty to kill an aggressor; but we have the right to defend ourselves from any unjust and illegal attack of aggressor. It is justifiable since killing here is not a murder. Euthanasia or mercy killing is defined as the intentional killing of the life of the presumably hopeless person. It is inherently wrong because it violates the nature and dignity of human beings. Since life originates from God, therefore, He alone has a sovereign right over life. Birth Control deliberates prevention of pregnancy...
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...a woman are felt by many to be morally wrong, but is it really? Or do these people fear the unknown and are using morality as the excuse for their negligence of the unknown? The utilitarian follow the utilitarian moral guide lines in their beliefs utilitarian’s would not be against same sex marriages. However if the Ethical egoist follows their moral guide lines then it is believed that they would be against same sex marriages. In this paper I am going to try to show you what has brought me to these beliefs and how I believe ones morals may differ in the pursuit of society’s happiness. Utilitarianism is about obtaining the greatest good for the greatest number of people. With that said utilitarian’s would not be against two people in love, joining together in the sanctity of marriage. According to Webster’s dictionary utilitarianism is defined as: “a theory that the aim of action should be the largest possible balance of pleasure over pain, or the greatest happiness of the greatest number.” Our ethic’s book Ethics Theory and Practice tenth edition (Thiroux and Krasemann 2009 page 317), “the basic argument against the morality of homosexuality is that it is unnatural and perverse; that is, it goes against the laws of God, traditional family values, and the moral values of Nature.” This creates the problems of not only proving that God exists, but also for people who are nonreligious. The problem for them is they would have to come to terms as to their faiths, and then as...
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...listed as such in medical journals until 1973, and to this day scientists can only theorize as to what actually causes someone to become homosexual. Some believe it has a biological nature, while others believe not only that it is a mental disorder, but a tool of a being named Satan. Barbara Blewster, a member of the Arizona State Legislature was quoted as saying, "The perversion that follows homosexuality is bestiality and then human sacrifice and cannibalism." This is where the ethical issues of homosexuality arise. The issue ranges from attitudes like Mrs. Blewster’s who believe homosexuality to be an abomination and a sin, to those who feel that discrimination and hate toward someone who was just “born that way” is unethical. This leads us into the question of homosexual marriage. Should homosexuals be granted the same holy matrimony that heterosexual couples have? The first recorded depiction of homosexuality was found in Mesopotamia, circa 3000 BC where artifacts were discovered depicting same sex couples. (Nevill) There are other types of recorded evidence of roughly the same time, for example, In Egypt in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara there is a tomb for a male/male couple who oversaw the Pharaoh’s manicurists, and is dated to be between 2400 BC and 3000 BC. (McCoy) Many people who shaped the world we live in were homosexual, such as: Plato,...
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...He shows lust thru his work by painting the character Dorian Gray with passion and desire. During the times of the Late Victorian Era, homosexuality is immoral. Basil’s immoral secret would put him in a situation of blackmail or scandal if his secret were reveled. He is not at sin thru the way the other two characters are deadly to one self from the cultural anxieties. His sins are only from the negative vices of generous virtues rather than the excess vices like Dorian Gray and Lord Henry poses. He disinclined activities or exertions from his true nature of homosexuality because of fear from the cultural anxieties. His sloth like attitude identified that he did not accept himself as a homosexual. This attitude led him to be indecisive that Dorian Gray was subjective of violating the cultural anxieties. In addition, his laziness to see the truth led to his gruesome death; killed by the one person he admired the most, his so-called friend Dorian...
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...pressing wish for stability and normalcy amongst both the chaos abroad and the paranoia that characterized the Red Scare’s fear-mongering anti-communist policies. Psychiatrists, while relying on information about homosexuality that would later prove to be entirely false, recommended screenings, and their subsequent use to reject and remove homosexuals from service came as a result of the moral depravity associated with the community. Gay people were coined as ‘sex psychopaths’ and deviants that could hide in plain sight and maliciously infiltrate American homes and families, breaking apart the carefully cultivated image of breadwinner men and housewife women. Paranoia...
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...When discussing gay rights, very many questions arise. Questions such as how long has homosexual behaviour been going on? How many countries are legalizing gay marriage? Why do homosexual and lesbian couples get to live the same way that straight couples do? Gay rights is a topic that many Americans are unfamiliar with, due to the fact that the baby boomers were raised in a generation where racism was alive and homosexuals/lesbians were an abomination. Therefore, children and young adults are experiencing a different world now. Homosexuality has been recorded as early as the Roman times. Then again, all were rumors or word of mouth so nothing was ever concrete, up until 1924, where the society for human rights was founded by Henry Gerber...
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...comparisons are obvious, both Jean Genet and Querelle were in the French military, both Genet and Querelle are criminals, and both Genet and Querelle have a history of homosexual tendencies. These similarities are just the surface however. Genet uses the characters in Querelle of Brest to express complex ideas about his own self-image. Before delving into these ideas however, one must first know a bit about Jean Genet’s personal history and the environment he was in. Jean Genet was born in Paris, France in 1910. (Pendergast) Some sources claim that Genet’s mother was a prostitute but other sources dispute it, though regardless if she was a prostitute or not, Querelle never knew anything about his father and his mother abandoned him at birth. He was raised by foster parents who were reputedly very loving and supportive. Genet was a good student at school but he often got into trouble due to his often attempts of running away from home and stealing. (New World) Genet’s life of crime began at age ten when he was falsely accused of stealing. At that point Genet decided that he would become the thief that he was accused of being. (imagi-nation) It was a couple years later that Genet discovered that he was a homosexual. It was during these early years when Genet discovered who he was as a person. That person was a homosexual criminal and that discovery would later influence the rest of his life. (imagi-nation) Genet’s life as a thief eventually led him to be taken into a French Juvenile...
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...rests on a certain view that the world has a rational order with values and purposes built into its very nature. And since homosexuality is against the orders of nature, the natural law theory totally condemns it. I disagree with this point of view because I choose not to judge homosexuals but instead I accept them as members of our society. Middle Eastern societies do not accept homosexuals because their beliefs are against it, but sometimes different behaviors can add to the diversity in a society. We should not let homosexuals feel like they are being looked down upon or treated differently than any other human being. Rather, we should try to understand the basis of their behavior and take consideration into the causes that led these people to practice homosexuality. Some causes are social while others are biological. There may have been many social causes or experiences that might have lead to homosexual behavior. The main biological cause for homosexuality has been identified to be related to the abnormally high levels of the female hormones progesterone and estrogen. Also there have been studies indicating that some parts of the brain that control attitude and behavior are slightly smaller in homosexual males compared to normal male brains. Homosexuality is a very debatable issue and some people view it as morally wrong and others such as myself don’t. According to the natural law theory, everything in nature has a purpose just as Aristotle believed. For example, the rain...
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...games did not symbolize the progress we have made in this respect, but came to symbolize the morally reprehensible position of the Kremlin’s position on Homosexuality, and its authoritarian reaction to individual and groups who questioned the legitimacy of their laws. It also highlighted through the inaction of the global community, a sinister pervasiveness of homophobia throughout the world. During one of the many debates that often ensue during my history class; the topic of homosexual rights was put to the class. What transpired from this debate was a series of thought provoking questions that inspired me to write this particular article. Upon conducting my own research it became apparent to me that the Catholic Church in particular played a large role in providing a platform for homophobia to exist. The Vatican even went so far as to claim that homosexuality was a ‘moral evil’ and that people who were afflicted by this were ‘disordered’. The Catholic Church condemns homosexuality as a moral disorder that can be corrected according to the previous...
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...the high operational tempo of today’s military, there is no time to adjust and acclimate to a new way of thinking. In the past, and in some ways still to this day, racial prejudice and sexual prejudice still exists. What is relatively new to the military is more and more gay men and women are coming out. This is extremely difficult in any military occupation, especially that of the Army and Marine Corps with units that work in close quarters and live for long lengths of time sharing his or her living and shower spaces together. In 1993 President Clinton enacted the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy. A very controversial, policy change allowing homosexuals to serve in the military as long as they never told anyone their sexual preference or got caught doing anything to be considered of ill prejudice to the armed forces in a homosexual manner. At the same time, recruiters could no longer ask prior to enlistment or oath of office, nor could anyone ask the sexuality of a service member during the course of one’s enlistment or oath of office. According to the Service Members Legal Defense Network, approximately 13,650 service members were discharged under DADT policy for either displaying...
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...professor of History at the University of Virginia. Early on, Dr. Gallagher analyzed the failure of America’s political leadership to find a compromise on slavery in the days and years leading up to secession and the catastrophic and bloody war. There was the careful attempt to admit to the Union, in tandem, one slave state and one Free State to insure the balance of power in the Senate. Henry Clay of Kentucky, the “great compromiser” helped to work out the division of Western territory so that this balance was to be preserved “in perpetuity.” Slavery, however, was not a political battle that could ultimately be negotiated; it was rather a moral battle that did not lend itself to compromise. It pitted a new consciousness against a dying definition. Slavery could not be partially moral or moral under some circumstances. It was either moral or immoral. There was no middle ground. In the slavery debate, those who shared the new consciousness were quite clear. Human beings cannot be held in bondage. This new consciousness challenged those definitions, which suggested that some people did not qualify as human beings; that some people were primitive, childlike, created to be subservient, and were, therefore, fit for nothing other than manual labor. Within that definition, slavery was deemed to be morally acceptable and those who held this position actually believed that slavery was virtuous, since the slaves were assumed to be receiving the benefits of better health, longer life and wonderful...
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...valid condemnation of loving homosexual unions, because they were written for a different culture. The argument goes that in the time that these passages were written, homosexuality was seen as removing a man’s masculinity and so it was condemned in Leviticus for ceremonial reasons. This means...
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